Photo: Melody Loveless · CC BY SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Costa Rica
Spanish · CRC · Central Standard Time (North America)
How it scores for living there
- 59%Cost of livingRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 25%Income taxRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- AppliesCapital gainsRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 34MbpsInternetRated 4 of 5 for living there, good
- 2.69Doctors /1,000Rated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 18PM2.5 ug/m3Rated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 17.7Homicide /100kRated 1 of 5 for living there, bad
- 81Life expectancyRated 4 of 5 for living there, good
- 87%People onlineRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 58Corruption indexRated 4 of 5 for living there, good
- 12of 12Mild monthsRated 5 of 5 for living there, ideal
Facts, not judgements
- UTC-6Time zone
- CRCCurrency
- SpanishLanguage
- A, BPower plug
- 3.4mVisitors in 2019
Colour says whether a figure is good for someone moving in, not whether it is high: cheap is green and expensive is red. Every coloured box carries the reason for its colour, the bar under it repeats the score as a width, and boxes with no data are not drawn.
Nomads in Costa Rica
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Who can help you in Costa Rica
Vetted partners for the move: immigration and tax lawyers, relocation services, banking and eSIM, guides and local experts. One Gold partner and up to three standard listings per country.
Climate and cost by city
Sea off Liberia: warmest May at 31°C, coolest December at 28°C.
Average monthly temperature and rainfall from Open-Meteo ERA5 (2019-2023 mean, CC BY 4.0). Sea surface temperature from Open-Meteo Marine. Price level from the World Bank ICP survey, same-year pairing, omitted where the survey does not cover the country.
Cost of living and lifestyle
Day to day, Costa Rica costs about 59% of the US level, on a World Bank income of $31k per person (PPP, 2025).
That percentage is measured against your country, not against ours. It follows the country picker in the header, or your account if you are signed in. With neither, it falls back to the United States, which is the 100 of the World Bank index, and the sentence says so.
World Bank ICP price level (US=100) and GNI per capita PPP, CC BY 4.0. It is a national average: a capital runs above it and a small town below it.
Getting to Costa Rica
Its main airport has non-stop service to 13 airports in the OpenFlights route database.
| From | Routing | Flight time | Cheapest fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto | Non-stop | 5h 45m | €263 |
Airports and non-stop routes from OpenFlights (Open Database License). Fares and flight times are cached one-way economy prices from Travelpayouts, the cheapest seen recently rather than a live quote or an average. They move; treat them as an order of magnitude.
What to see in Costa Rica
Ordered by how many people looked each place up over the last twelve months, so the list is measured interest and not our taste.
non-geologically related mountain range
American Cordillera
5,876 readers a month look it up
national park
Manuel Antonio National Park
1,894 readers a month look it up
mountain
Cerro Chirripó
1,571 readers a month look it up
stratovolcano
Poás Volcano
1,571 readers a month look it up
national park
Corcovado National Park
1,409 readers a month look it up
protected area
Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve
1,295 readers a month look it up
volcano
Irazú Volcano
1,039 readers a month look it up
mountain range
Cordillera de Talamanca
609 readers a month look it up
Photo credits
- American Cordillera: Miguel Vieira (talk · contribs), PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- Manuel Antonio National Park: Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz), CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Cerro Chirripó: Peter Andersen, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Poás Volcano: Peter Andersen, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
- Corcovado National Park: rob Stoeltje from loenen, netherlands, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve: Haakon S. Krohn, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Irazú Volcano: Rafael Golan, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Cordillera de Talamanca: Dennis from Bethany, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The practical basics
- Local time…Central Standard Time (North America), America/Costa_Rica
- CurrencyCRCISO 4217
- LanguagesSpanish
- PlugsA, B120/240 V 60 Hz
- Safe tap water80%of people on a safely managed supply, World Bank 2024
- UK travel adviceNo blanket warningFCDO, reviewed 2026-05-19
- Population5.2mWorld Bank
Currency codes ISO 4217; plugs and voltage from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); time zone and flag from the countries-states-cities database (ODbL 1.0); travel advice from the UK FCDO (Open Government Licence v3).
How many people visit
Costa Rica logged 1.1 million international arrivals in 2020, the last year the World Bank series covers. That is a pandemic year and it is not what a normal year looks like: in 2019 the same series counted 3.4 million.
World Bank indicator ST.INT.ARVL, international tourism arrivals, CC BY 4.0. Arrivals count trips, not people: the same visitor twice in a year counts twice.
Tax in Costa Rica, in one line
Personal income tax runs up to 25 per cent. Capital gains: 15% (optional 2.25% on first sale of a pre-2019 asset; 2.5% withholding for non-residents).
Tax figures are compiled by us and are being re-verified against primary sources. General information, not tax advice.
Data: World Bank, Open-Meteo, M-Lab, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under open licences. General information, not tax or legal advice.